US adults get into LBS groove‎: Survey

Washington, US: 28 percent cell owners in the US use phones to get directions or recommendations based on their current location. That translates to 23 percent of all American adults, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. The survey also revealed that only five percent of cellphone owners or four percent of all US adults use their phones to “check in” with geosocial services such as Foursquare or Gowalla.

Pew explained that 83 percent of American adults aged 18 and older own a cellphone. 42 percent of cellphone owners own a smartphone and they are more likely to use location-based services. Nearly six out of 10 smartphone owners — 58 percent — use a geosocial or a location-based information service of some kind. Nine percent of Internet users add their location on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

Kathryn Zickuhr, co-author of the report, said, “Americans are not currently all that eager to share explicitly their location on social media sites, but they are taking advantage of their phones’ geolocation capabilities in other ways.” Zickuhr added, “Smartphone owners are using their phones to get fast access to location-relevant information on-the-go.”